Role Reversals
by Lanta
Summary: Grissom is temporarily demoted from his position as nightshift supervisor, and Sara is forced to take his place. GSR.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes**

I haven't written any fiction for quite a while, and I've never written a CSI fic before, so I hope this is okay! It started when I read another fic on this site where the idea of Sara as an acting supervisor was mentioned, and this storyline came to mind...

I haven't actually seen much of season 5, so if I get anything wrong over the course of this story (e.g. Sophia's character) then I'm sorry! And by the way, I actually quite like Ecklie, I just needed him to be a pain in the neck for the sake of this story…

**Disclaimer**

I don't own CSI. What a surprise that must be.

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"It was an abuse of power, Grissom."

"Conrad--"

"No. You've done it once too many times, Gil. You're a supervisor; your job is to _supervise_ your subordinates, not to force them into participating in your experiments. Do you know what could happen if you picked the wrong person? They could sue us. The lab would be fighting a law suit, the media would be all over it, and you would lose your job."

"Look, Ecklie..."

"No, Grissom. You're not behaving like a supervisor should, so for the next few weeks, you're not going to be one."

"You're suspending me?" Grissom was startled, which was strange, because the news wasn't really that surprising when he thought about it. "Ecklie, the nightshift is already short-staffed--"

"I'm not suspending you. I'm temporarily demoting you."

Grissom blinked. "Excuse me?"

"I'm temporarily removing you from your job as a supervisor. Your assistance as a CSI is, however, still needed. Unfortunately."

Grissom looked down as he processed this. He kind of thought he'd prefer the suspension. He wasn't keen on taking orders, and beyond that, he was definitely not keen on being the subject of office gossip. Which, he certainly would be.

"...so you're going to bring in someone from another shift to supervise?" He wasn't sure whether he'd prefer someone from swing shift - they had all previously been under his supervision on the night shift - or from days, where he didn't really know many people.

"They're short-staffed enough as it is... three of the day shift are away at the moment, including the supervisor. It's going to have to be someone from your own team."

This was a shock. Ecklie was going to temporarily promote one of his own CSI's, over his head? One of his own subordinates? That was bad... for so many reasons. He felt the fury rise up inside him, but forced himself to keep calm, at least on the outside. "Sophia has the experience," he noted, trying (so far successfully) to avoid hitting the man sitting opposite him.

Ecklie frowned. He had, in fact, been thinking the exact same thing. But Grissom had suggested her, and he was not in the mood to give Gil Grissom anything he asked for. That, of course, left only one option.

"I was thinking more along the lines of Ms Sidle," he lied, smoothly. "She's already become something of a mentor to young Greg, correct?"

"Correct," Grissom answered, but his mouth had suddenly seemed to go dry. It was only a few months since Ecklie had suspended Sara for being insubordinate; why was he now promoting her, even temporarily? He forced himself to think positively about this; it would be good for her career, a good experience for her. _Why am I any more upset about this than I would have been if it were Sophia?_

"Good. Then until further notice, Sara Sidle is nightshift supervisor. And you're dismissed."

Grissom left, still struggling to comprehend what had just happened.

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"Ms Sidle?"

Sara looked round, coffee pot in hand. "Yes?"

"Mr Ecklie would like to speak to you in his office."

Sara blinked, wondering what she'd done wrong _this_ time. Maybe he was going to tell her off because she'd come in so long before the start of her shift, she'd been doing a lot of overtime recently. "Um, okay... thanks." The receptionist left, and Sara reluctantly put down the coffee and followed after her. She passed Grissom's office on the way, and saw him sitting there, his head on his hands, elbows on the table. _What's up with him?_

She entered Ecklie's office with some trepidation, mixed with a lot of annoyance. She exited, a few minutes later, and leaned against the wall for support, wondering if by any chance she was asleep and the previous few minutes had just been a dream. _Grissom demoted? How? And how much of a jerk is Ecklie, to give me his job?_ For a second, she considered how good this could be for her career, and then roughly pushed those thoughts away. _This isn't exactly how I wanted to advance._

--------------

"Hey."

Grissom looked up from his chair to see Sara standing in the doorway, leaning on the frame and looking at him with some concern. She had spoken softly, and he knew from her expression, and the tight way in which she was standing, that Ecklie had already talked to her.

"Hi." He glanced around the room. "I guess this is yours, for a while."

"I don't want it." Sara paused, searching for words. "This isn't how I… not like this."

"I know, Sara. I'm not blaming you." He forced himself to his feet, located a box at the back of his office, and began shoving his things into it.

"Griss, I..." she broke off, as Catherine floated into the office.

"Grissom, do you have a -" she stopped, seeing the faces of the people around her, and the box sitting on the desk. "What's going on?"

"Ecklie." Sara's tone was flat, hard.

"What? Grissom - what? He hasn't fired you?" Catherine's voice conveyed well her thoughts of what she would do to Conrad Ecklie if that in fact turned out to be the case.

"Temporarily demoted." The words sounded strange to Grissom, the first time he had said them aloud.

"It's kind of like suspension, only he still has to work, and gets paid less for a few weeks rather than nothing for a few days."

Catherine stared. "Griss... what did you do?"

Knowing that Grissom wasn't likely to answer her, Sara did so instead. "He did another of his experiments on a staff member. Solved the case, but..." She didn't need to end the sentence.

Catherine sent her thoughts back to other such 'experiments' Grissom had performed in the past. Greg had been decidedly unimpressed with the one concerning his feet, and Warrick had complained of shoulder pain for a couple of days after being dragged across a room by his arm, first by Sara, and then by a secretary. "Yeah. So, Gil, you're, what, a normal CSI now? For how long?"

"Ecklie didn't say."

"Who's taking over night shift?

"That would be me." Sara lifted her hand slightly,

"You?" Catherine was unable to contain her shock. Ordinarily, Sara would have protested such outrage - she could more than handle the work - but today, in this situation, she found herself agreeing.

"Then... you're transferring out of nightshift?"

Grissom shook his head. "No."

"Great. The Wonder That Is Ecklie strikes again."

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Grissom could feel all the eyes on him as he walked down the corridor to the break room. Obviously, it hadn't taken long for the gossip rivers to start flowing. The one good thing about that was that he wasn't going to have to explain why Sara was the one giving the assignments.

The night shift was about to start, and Sophia and Greg were already at the table, waiting for the other two members of the team. As Grissom entered, he saw the sympathetic looks in their eyes, but to his surprise and relief, neither one said anything to him about his situation, choosing instead to simply be nice to him - which in Greg's case meant pouring him a cup of his own expensive coffee brand, and in Sophia's meant pulling out a chair for him to sit in.

Sara came in a minute or two later, looking distinctly stressed. Apparently she'd had a lot to do in the course of the past couple of hours; unsurprising, having been shoved pretty much instantly into a job she had no experience with. And Grissom was sure she would have been the target of some gossip herself; perhaps not a river, but at least a fairly wide stream.

She accepted the coffee cup Greg offered her, and took a few sips without sitting down, glancing around the room, her eyes finally meeting Grissom's. After a minute or so she seemed to decide that she might as well get it over with, and placed her cup down on the table.

"Sophia - you've got a DB in the suburbs; police think it's probably a suicide but you need to check it out." She passed a slip of paper with the address on over to the other woman, and then turned to the two men. "We have a double homicide. College student and his brother, both found dead in his dorm room." She passed the address over to Grissom, and hesitated, obviously about to say something. When she finally did speak, however, she simply told them she'd meet them in the car park in fifteen minutes, and then she turned and left.

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"Grissom, 'bout time you got here. We've got two dead kids and--"

"Brass, you need to speak to Sara."

Jim blinked. "What about?"

"The case. She's acting supervisor."

"What?"

"We swapped jobs for a while." Sara's tone was heavy on the sarcasm. Brass looked at her, but she just stared back at him, making it clear that she was not in the mood for explanations at present. "You were saying about the kids..." she pressed him.

"Yeah... right. College freshman Michael Ruley comes back home from a weekend with his parents, finds his roommate and roommate's sixteen-year-old brother lying face down on the carpet. Afraid you'll have some cross-contamination; guy puked all over the place."

Sara nodded and, hesitating slightly, turned to Greg. "Greg, you're working outside the room. Hallways, stairs, perimeter of the building... anywhere there could be evidence. Don't forget the dumpster." Greg nodded and took off down the hall, while Sara and Grissom entered the room, pulling on latex gloves as they did so.

"Sara, hi," said David, looking up from where he was bent over one of the bodies. "I heard you were..."

"Yeah," said Sara, not really wanting him to finish his sentence.

He nodded and rose, gesturing towards the two bodies. "They died probably around midday yesterday. Younger brother was shot in the head, probably died instantly. Older one got it in the chest; bled out."

"Okay." Sara and Grissom, by an unspoken arrangement, each took one of the bodies, and crouched down to see what evidence the killer had left behind.

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**Author's Notes (2)**

I have the next couple of scenes planned out in my head, but that's about it, so I would appreciate suggestions, or hints of what you'd like to see! In particular, I have yet to work out what exactly Grissom did, so some ideas would be wonderful... I also welcome constructive criticism, of course. Thanks for reading…


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Notes**

Sorry for making you guys wait, I was away for a few days having a wonderful Pamper Break. I actually intended to make this a longer chapter, but I thought since it's already been a week since chapter one, it would be better to get what I've written so far online quickly. Thanks for everyone's reviews, I'm glad you enjoyed the first installment and I hope you enjoy this one too.

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Greg came into the dorm-room-turned-crime-scene breathless from running up the stairs. "Grissom, look what I found in the dumpster!" He held out a plastic bag containing a blood-soaked glove.

Grissom reached for the bag, and then paused reluctantly, glancing over at Sara. She looked back without speaking, their eyes meeting in silent communication. Greg caught the looks, and squirmed uncomfortably.

"Just give it to him, Greg. I have to get to an autopsy." Sara rose from where she had been examining the site previously occupied by the younger boy's body. As she left she nodded to Brass, who was re-entering the room after interviewing Michael Ruley and the other occupants of the dormitory.

Grissom took the bag off Greg, and held it up to the light, examining the glove inside. It was white, and the red blood seemed to be predominantly on the palm, which concurred with Grissom's earlier theory that the older brother had tried to stand up after being shot, and been pushed back to the ground. "This is good, Greg."

"Yeah." Greg fidgeted for a second longer, then said "I'm gonna, um, go back to my search" and left.

Brass, alone with Grissom for the first time that day, stood looking at him for a second, then said, "So, are you going to tell me about it yet?"

"About what?"

Brass sighed. "Grissom…"

Grissom looked away for a second, then turned back to face him. "I've been demoted. Temporarily."

"Ecklie?"

"Who else?"

"And he put _Sara_ in charge? One of your own team?"

"She can do the job."

"Yeah, cos you really expect me to believe you don't care. She's your subordinate, Grissom… or was, until today." Brass shook his head. "And _Sara_…"

"Why should Sara be any different than Sophia?"

Brass just looked at him incredulously, and then shook his head for a second time.

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_**A few hours later.**_

"Sara?"

Sara looked up from the evidence she had been processing to see Sophia standing at the end of the table. She felt strangely relieved that it was her; Sophia wasn't by any means her favourite person in the world, but with everyone in the lab having an opinion on the current situation – even if it wasn't expressed through their words, she could see in their faces – it was comforting to see someone whose opinion she didn't actually _care_ about. Also, Sophia had been through a demotion herself, and probably knew that neither Grissom nor Sara particularly wanted to talk about it.

"How's your case going?"

"Suicide. I found a note; prints belonged to the deceased, same for those on the gun. No evidence anyone else had been in the house for weeks."

Sara nodded, glancing down at the evidence laid out on the table beneath her. "Then if you're not busy, I could probably use your help here."

"Sure. What do I need to know?"

As Sara went over the details of the case with her, Sophia noted how stressed she looked. Not that surprising really, considering. For her own part, Sophia was thankful that she hadn't been chosen for the position, despite the fact that it indicated that Ecklie was still punishing her. She liked Grissom, and he had been so kind after her own demotion that she had no desire to profit from his.

_Okay, so I'm not sure 'profit' is the right word. Sara's obviously taking it pretty badly. I think maybe she's more angry about all this than Grissom is._

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"Hey Cath."

Catherine Willows glanced up from the crime scene photographs she had been staring intently at for the last twenty minutes or so to see Sara standing at the entrance to her office. It was nearly a full hour before the night shift was due to start, and Catherine had a suspicion that Sara had come in early with the particular intention of speaking to her privately.

"Hey Sara. How did last night go?"

"Kind of tense."

Cath nodded. "What do you want?"

"Advice. I haven't exactly had experience or training at being a supervisor… and I can't really ask Grissom."

Catherine gestured to a nearby chair. "Sit down."

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**A/N**: Still haven't decided what Grissom did. Any suggestions?


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note**

Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed… I've decided to take the advice of a couple of the reviewers and not say what Grissom did, it isn't really needed and you can all feel free to come up with your own ideas.

Sorry for another really short chapter; it was originally meant to be part of chapter 2, but I wanted to get that up quickly so I split it up. Oh and apparently I spelt Sofia wrong in the last two chapters, sorry.

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"Hey Sara," said Nick as he passed her in the hallway outside Catherine's office. She greeted him tiredly, and exchanged smiles with Warrick who was standing just behind him, before making her way in the direction of the break room.

"Wow, I am so glad I am not on the night shift right now," commented Warrick as the two of them walked through the doorway and stood next to Catherine's desk.

The blonde CSI raised her eyebrows at him. "Oh, then I guess you won't be pleased that I've just volunteered you to help out Sara."

Warrick blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Three new cases have just come in, and it's too late for swing shift to officially take them on. Night shift doesn't have the staff to handle all of them as well as the double homicide they're already working on from last night, so I told Sara she could borrow you two. She's clearing it with Ecklie as we speak."

Nick and Warrick looked at each other and sighed, defeated.

"Well, I guess I could use the overtime pay."

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Nick and Warrick walked together into the break room where Greg was already standing pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Hey guys… swing shift isn't over yet is it?"

"No; we're joining you guys for the night. Catherine's fault. Apparently you've got more cases than you can handle without us."

"Oh." Greg paused. "Well, you've picked a fantastic time to pay us a visit."

"Yeah, believe me we heard." Both men gratefully accepted the cups Greg passed over to them, and they sat down at the table, looking up to greet Sofia as she entered the room.

"What's going on?" she asked, pulling out a chair for herself.

"Nick and Warrick are being punished for something. Joining our shift for the night."

"Yeah, heard we had some new cases." She took a sip of the drink Warrick had just handed her, and winced at its taste; this evidently was not one of Greg's own stash. "At least, with so many cases, we won't all be working on the same one. Sara and Grissom should have an excuse to avoid each other, and us."

Nick opened his mouth to give his opinion of the current situation, but closed it hurriedly when he saw Grissom enter the room. The entomologist gave a weak smile to everyone in the room and sank down into the sole remaining chair. Everyone gave him quick, nervous glances, and for a minute or so an awkward silence reigned.

It was eventually broken by the arrival of Sara with the assignment slips. She gave a tired grin to Nick and Warrick. "Thanks for helping out, guys. Nick – you've got a DB outside McDonald's just a few blocks from here. Warrick, you have floater out on Lake Mead. Take Greg." She passed them the slips of paper, and then glanced over to the two remaining CSI's. "Sofia, I want you to stay with me on the double homicide. Grissom – decomp in the desert."

Grissom looked at her. "Sara, I really think I should stay on the double-"

Sara shook her head. "No, Grissom… I need you on the decomp."

"Sara…"

"_Grissom_." Her tone shocked everyone in the room, including herself. She closed her eyes for a second, getting herself together. When she spoke again, her tone was close to pleading. "Please, Griss... don't make me do that."

Grissom looked away for a second, away from her eyes and those of every other person in the room. Then he looked up, nodded, and took the assignment slip out of her hand.

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"Grissom."

Grissom was still sitting in the break room, his head in his hand and a box of pills sitting on the table next to him; proof that he was fighting off a migraine. He looked so much smaller to Sara, hunched over like that; he valued his control so much, and it had been ripped so unfairly from him.

He looked up as she spoke, and then quickly got up. "Sara. I'm just going…"

"Griss." Her tone was soft. "I'm sorry… I just… it's a decomp, there'll be bugs. And I need Sofia. She's… easiest to work with, at the moment."

"I'm sorry too. This isn't your fault. And you're in charge. I should've…"

Sara just sighed. She looked away for a second, and then regained eye contact with him. "This isn't your fault either, Griss."

Grissom shook his head. "Ecklie was right, I shouldn't have-"

"Oh, that was your fault. Not exactly the best move you've ever made. You could have been sued." Sara shook her head. "But this? Me? Ecklie didn't suspend you because all the shifts are short-staffed. But he could have transferred you. Or me. Put Catherine in charge of night shift. Anything but this." She paused, and then sighed. "You need to get to your crime scene."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Notes**

Sorry once again for making you wait between chapters, I'm afraid I can't promise it won't happen again… anyway this one's twice the length of the last two, so that's good right?

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, and please do so again after you read this chapter :-) Constructive criticism is welcome as always.

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"Sidle?"

Sara looked up from the microscope she was peering through, to see Ecklie standing in the doorway. He was dressed smartly in a black suit, white shirt and dark green tie; most likely he had been in court that afternoon and hadn't bothered to change. Or perhaps he'd been to a formal dinner with the Mayor or some other such person.

"Ecklie," she responded, not overly keen to talk to him. _What does he want now? I'd wonder if he was coming to tell me another of my superiors had been demoted and I was taking his place… except that at the moment, Ecklie's the one above me. Shame he won't demote himself, that **would** be nice._

"Sara…" Ecklie swallowed, nervously. He was well aware that Sara was not happy with her temporary promotion, and that her view was shared by the majority of the lab. He firmly believed he had done the right thing – if Grissom had been allowed to continue with his little 'experiments', eventually he - and the lab as a whole - could have been in serious trouble. Still, having everybody hate him – well, at least violently dislike him – was not something Ecklie enjoyed.

After a second he continued. "Sara, I'm… sorry to burden you with this, I know you're in the middle of a case, but there're some reports that are due in tomorrow morning, and well, Grissom… Anyway, could you check his office to see if he's done them… and if not..."

Sara sighed, knowing all too well what her supervisor's – well, usual supervisor's – attitude was to paperwork. In all likelihood he'd left it to the last minute, perhaps hoping that a last-minute case would be reasonable justification to delay still further; although he was too responsible to actually not do the reports, the chances of them having been completed before his meeting with Ecklie nearly twenty-eight hours previously was remote at best.

"Okay." She sighed, glancing at the evidence laid out on the table in front of her, then looking back at Ecklie. "Sofia can handle this for a while, anyway. I guess I can go write reports."

Ecklie studied her. "You've never written these before, and Catherine's just gone home. Need a hand?"

Sara blinked at him, unable to work out his motives. He had a point though. "Um, yeah. Please."

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Grissom's mind was on anything but the road as he drove toward the interstate that would take him to his crime scene. His hands seemed work by themselves as they turned the wheel to get into the correct lane; his foot automatically responded to the glowing red of a traffic light.

He was glad, really, that Sara had reassigned him. The double homicide meant working with Sofia, with Brass, with Sara herself. Right now it was easier to be alone, or with people he didn't really know. He was tired of the looks that seemed to come his way whenever he walked through the lab; tired of the people that wanted to talk to him about it, and of the people that didn't.

His thoughts turned, not unusually, to the brunette criminalist that had given him this chance to be alone. Forced it on him, actually, for which he was both grateful and annoyed. Then again, he'd often forced her to do things she disliked - for the sake of the case, or the lab, or herself. He couldn't really complain when she did the same to him.

He'd met her when he did a series of seminars, and she had been his star pupil. Afterwards they had kept in touch. He'd brought her here to Vegas, first to run an internal investigation for him, and then to join the team as a CSI. It was only recently that he'd learned why she'd made the move from San Francisco; previously, he had assumed that it was because the Las Vegas Crime Lab was the second best in the country, or perhaps because her salary was better here. Learning that she'd come here for him should have been a surprise to him… strangely, the surprise came more from realising that he wasn't surprised at all.

Shaking his head at such a confused sentence, he thought back over the past few years. At first he had been oblivious to her feelings for him; when they became too obvious to ignore, he had assumed that she simply had a crush on him. But he had gradually become conscious that her infatuation with him had not gone away, and seemed to be showing no signs of doing so. The real shock had come when he realised that he was beginning to return her feelings.

Did he love her? He didn't know, couldn't answer that question. Maybe love, romantic love at any rate, was something you had to work on; that came as a consequence of having a relationship, not the other way around. He knew he had feelings for her, strong ones, and maybe that meant that he had the potential for loving her, if only he could give into those feelings.

But giving into those feelings was something Gil Grissom had worked very hard to avoid.

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**6.00am**

Ecklie had been surprisingly helpful; not only in regard to the reports, but also in generally giving her advise in dealing with her new job. He'd stayed with her throughout most of the shift, despite it not being his usual working hours. He seemed to understand what she was going through, and despite herself she gave him a tiny smile when he left the room.

She left it herself just a few minutes later, intent on grabbing herself a cup of coffee. She had seen a jar of Greg's personal stash sitting in the break room, and took this to mean that the young CSI had shown his support for the team in his own personal way, namely sharing his treasure. _Thanks Greg._

She slowed, frowning, as she realised that loud voices were coming from down the hall. After pausing for a second to listen to the words, she quickly sped up again, heading towards the sounds.

"You will _not _speak to me like that!"

Ecklie's face was red from anger as he glared at the group in front of him. Sara, arriving at his side, was unable to pinpoint exactly which person he was speaking to. Nick, Greg, Hodges, two other lab techs and someone she thought was probably the janitor were all possibilities as they were standing immediately before him; beyond them were a small group of people that had most likely just come to see what the commotion was about.

"What's going on?" Sara was _not _happy to have her day once again ruined, and she allowed this fact to be conveyed loudly through her tone, her stance, and her glare.

Ecklie turned to her. "Your team here seems to think insulting their superior is allowed in this lab."

Sara took this in, and then turned to Nick for an explanation. He was reluctant to comply, especially with the steadily increasing crowd gathering in the corridor.

Noticing this, Sara turned her head to these on-lookers, saying icily, "Don't you people have anywhere else to be?"

Most of the crowd seemed to instantly realise that they did, and moved away quickly. One or two tried to remain, but the look she sent their way speedily removed them from her sight.

"Okay," she said, turning her head back to the smaller group in front of her. "Now somebody better start talking."

Taking a deep breath, Nick began, keeping his eyes on anything but hers. "Um.. we were just talking and… Grissom came up. One of us" - he was not going to say who - "said something… uncomplimentary about Ecklie, and he was passing at the time, and then…"

Sara had pretty much got the jist. _Great. That's just great._ She remembered her fervent thanks to Greg just a minute or so before, and was glad that she had not said them aloud. _You'd better not have been at fault here mister._

"I'll deal with it," she told Ecklie quietly. He opened his mouth to object, but she continued, "They're my people, right?"

He looked at her uncertainly, torn between the fact that she was in fact their supervisor – after all, hadn't he told her off for disrespecting Catherine's authority just a few months before? – and the knowledge that she was their friend, and probably agreed with their viewpoint. After a second he nodded and left.

Ecklie's departure complete, Sara turned her attention back to the six culprits. "In my office. Now." She turned and walked in its direction, without looking back to check that they were following.

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"_What is wrong with you people!"_

Sara's question was delivered with enough anger to make most of the men in front of her wince. "Grissom's demoted, I'm up to my eyeballs in his paperwork, we have more cases than we can handle, and you go and make things even _worse?_"

"Sara…"

"Shut up, Nick. Look, I don't care which of you started this, or who said what. Maybe some of you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time." She saw the possible-janitor start to fidget, and frowned at him. "Don't even try it. You should be thankful that I'm not actually your supervisor. I am however theirs for the moment – for the night in Nick's case – and I'm entirely tempted to suspend you all… or at least take out my temper on you for a bit. However, you have work to do and so do I so I'll limit it to just one thing which you will probably all hate: apologise to Ecklie."

The looks on their faces almost made her want to laugh, despite her anger. She looked at Greg, whose head was slightly bowed, and noticed the hangdog expression on his face.

Her voice now softer, she said quietly, "Look, Ecklie hasn't said yet when Grissom's going to get his job back. The better the mood he's in, the sooner it is likely to be. "

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"Hey, Sofia?"

She looked up to find Warrick standing in the doorway. "Yeah?"

"Have you seen Greg? He was meant to be processing evidence, but I can't find him."

Sofia lifted her eyebrows. "You mean you haven't heard?"

A frown crossed his dark, handsome face, and he came forward to stand beside her at the table. "Heard what?"

She shook her head. "You must be the only person in the lab who hasn't. He and Nick and a few others had a… confrontation with Ecklie. I don't know the specifics, but I know Sara was pretty mad. She's forcing them to apologise to him."

"She's…?" Warrick was stunned. Surely Nick and Greg would know better than to cross Ecklie at the moment. And Sara...

"They're probably lucky she was there. I'm pretty sure Ecklie would've suspended them, however short-staffed we are. I know he suspended Sara when she criticised Catherine in front of a few people, and that doesn't even compare to the today's scene. Apparently there was a pretty big crowd, 'till Sara got rid of them all."

Without knowing more, Warrick didn't really feel qualified to carry on the conversation, choosing instead to switch to a safer topic. "How's the double going?"

"Well it looks like the boys had a male visitor that night. A college freshman from two rooms down says he saw a guy around his own age enter the room together with the brothers, and there's a set of fingerprints at the scene that don't belong to anyone from that floor. So far no luck on identifying him though. How's your floater?"

Warrick shrugged. "Dead, unsurprisingly. Woman in her late thirties, no ID, multiple stab wounds. Thought at first it was a dump, until we got a phone call saying someone had spotted blood spatter in a boat not far from where the body washed up. Judging by the blood trail, she fell overboard." He was about to say more, when he happened to glance towards the open door, and saw Nick and Greg walking down the corridor.

Sofia followed the direction of his eyes, and studied the two men. "_They_ look happy."

"Yeah, very," Warrick responded. "They look like their favourite pets just died." He suddenly remembered that he had in fact come into the room looking for one of them, and quickly said goodbye to Sofia and went to intercept Greg.

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By the time Grissom got back to the lab, dayshift was in, and nightshift had already disappeared. He had spent a long time at the desert crime scene, and then got caught up in the early morning traffic on his way back.

He logged in the bags of evidence he had collected, then went to the break room for a quick cup of coffee before heading home. His head hurt from a throbbing migraine, and he wanted to sleep, but first he was absolutely starving, having gone the entire shift without anything to eat.

Pouring the black liquid into his cup, he suddenly realised that there was a small box on the side of the table, his name in large letters on the top. Curious, he lifted the lid to find it contained a large piece of fruitcake. Obviously someone had anticipated his lack of eating. Catherine? But she'd have gone home a long time ago.

Seeing a small slip of paper stuck part way underneath the cake, he lifted it out, his eyes fixed on the two words contained there.

_From Sara._

----------------

**A/N**

I couldn't bear to keep Ecklie as just 'the bad guy' so I made him a little bit more sympathetic in this chapter! Hope you enjoyed it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes**

I'm afraid this chapter's pretty short… and I'm sorry for taking so long. Bit of writer's block I suppose. I do at least know what I'm going to write for the next chapter - it should really be part of this one, but since I've left you for so long, I thought you'd like what I've already written to keep you going…

Thank you to x-sara-x for giving me a bit of inspiration for what to write.

Oh, and I just thought I should clear up when this story's set in case anyone's wondering - it's basically at the end of season 5, but Grave Danger didn't happen (because it would mess up the story way too much).

As always, please read & review.

----------------

"Hey, how was graveyard?"

Nick's expression as he turned around to look at her made her heart sink down to her knees. "Okay, what happened?"

Seeing his friend having a little trouble answering, Warrick decided to come to his rescue. "Nick and some of the guys had a dispute with Ecklie."

Catherine's eyes widened. "Excuse me?"

Sensing that her gaze was fixed firmly on him, Nick managed to give her a stumbling rundown of the confrontation. "…and Ecklie was really mad, and then Sara turned up, and she was mad too…"

"And you're in today? You're not on suspension? Wait, you weren't demoted were you? You are still a level three? But then, Ecklie would have contacted me…"

"I'm not demoted. Or suspended. Sara just made us apologise to Ecklie."

Catherine just stared at him for a while before speaking again. "Okay, I… I'm not even going to try to tell you what the consequences of this could have been, because I'm sure you know. But I have to say, if it had been me not Sara, I wouldn't have been anywhere near so lenient."

"I know Cath, and I'm sorry, we all are. None of us meant for Ecklie to overhear, or for it to escalate like that." He sighed, shook his head. "I guess I'd better try and make it up to Sara, as well."

----------------

"Hiya Catherine."

She turned at the sound, studied the woman standing in the entrance to the break room. "Sara, hi. Heard you had a lovely time this morning."

Sara sighed. "How do you do it Cath? How do you combine being somebody's boss with being their friend? I was so angry at them this morning… still am, actually… and I knew I couldn't just let them get away with it… but at the same time, Nick and Greg are my friends, and if I hadn't been their supervisor…"

"You'd probably have been in trouble with them?"

"Yeah."

"Off the record: so would I. I can't exactly count on one hand the amount of times I've wanted to tell Ecklie exactly what I thought of him, and now, with Grissom demoted… Still, Nick and the rest were way out of line, and you definitely let them off far too easily."

Sara nodded. "I know. Ecklie probably thinks so too. But we're short-staffed enough as it is without suspending anyone – I mean, that's why Grissom's demoted instead of suspended in the first place – and… I'm only a supervisor temporarily. A few weeks time, I've got to go back to just being their friend and colleague. What should I have done? How _do _you discipline your friends?"

"I don't think there's an easy answer to that, Sara." Catherine paused, then grabbed her coat. "Come on. I'm taking you out."

"Wh-what? Where are we going?"

"We're going to relax. You're way too stressed, and my back's hurting from crouching down for hours collecting evidence. Your shift doesn't start for a while yet, and I didn't take a break, I can justify leaving early."

Sara frowned, following her co-worker down the corridor. "So _where _are we going?"

----------------

**Question:**

Does anyone happen to know if Ecklie's married?


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Notes**

Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, giving such nice compliments, and thank you in particular to the many people who answered my question about Ecklie :)

----------------

"I still can't believe you talked me into that."

Catherine raised her eyebrows at Sara's petulant comment. "You seemed to enjoy it. You certainly look a whole lot less stressed."

She did. Her posture was far more relaxed than it had been for days. And she had to admit that she had had a good time. Her hand crept up to her shoulder, which still felt slightly damp from the oils used during the massage.

However, she couldn't help complaining. "I'm practically falling asleep now. I'm about to start my shift, and all I want to do is lie down and close my eyes again."

"That's what caffeine's for." Catherine's distinctly unsympathetic words made Sara smile; her characteristic gesture of amusement where the two sides of her mouth pulled towards the middle.

"Catherine?"

"Uh huh?"

"Thanks. For everything."

----------------

Sara was walking out of Grissom's – her – office on the way to give out the team's assignments when Ecklie called out her name. She paused, turning to greet him.

"Sara, I just wanted to let you know that they all apologised."

"Good."

Ecklie hesitated for a second, then continued, "I know you've dealt with them, and as their supervisor you have the right to do it however you wish, but you do need to make sure that it's added to their records. That kind of insubordination…"

_Calm, Sara. Remember the massage. Nice, loose muscles. _"Okay."

Ecklie nodded, turned away from her. "I'll just, um, leave you to start your shift."

As she left, he couldn't help turning back towards her, watching her as she walked down the hallway leading to the break room. It occurred to him with a slight shock that he was attracted to her.

_Where did that come from? A couple of days ago you couldn't even stand her._

He didn't dwell on it however. She was a smart, gorgeous woman; it wasn't that surprising that he found her appealing. Besides, it wasn't like he'd ever have a chance. Ecklie may have had his faults, but he wasn't stupid.

----------------

From further down the corridor, Grissom had overheard their conversation. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. Who had been insubordinate? On the way into the lab he had passed a couple of people gossiping by the locker room, and had heard Ecklie's name mentioned, but as usual he had chosen to ignore it. Office gossip was hardly his thing.

But if this concerned Sara… and more than just Sara. It seemed like some of his people – her people, presently – were in trouble, and Ecklie of all people had got involved. What had happened? This was certainly not turning out to be a great first supervisory experience for his friend.

His friend. What was she, anyway? She _was_ his friend, surely; they'd known each other long enough, kept in touch for years before she came to work for him. But things were never quite that easy. They were co-workers too, and she had been his student. And… she had been more than that, if he admitted it to himself. Never in actual fact. Never baring the title of 'girlfriend' or 'lover'. In his mind, though… he cared, deeply. And he knew she cared for him just as strongly, maybe more so. Unfortunately, sometimes that got in the way of their friendship. Occasionally, he felt closer to her than he had ever felt to any other person in his life. At other times, no one had ever felt further away.

_Potential for loving her._

The thought resurfaced, a reminder of his musings the previous day. He seemed to be spending more and more time lately on thoughts like these. Jumbled thoughts, not quite comprehensible. Thoughts about her.

Shaking his head to clear it, he entered the break room to find out what crimes he and the rest of the team would be investigating that night.

----------------

**A/N**

It may be because it's past midnight and I've currently got an attack of the giggles, but I came very close to attempting a short one-off Sara-Ecklie fic just to see if I could do it. I wanted to describe the reactions of all the other CSI's to seeing them kissing madly in the corridor. However, I think I'm too scared that you'd all immediately get on planes to Liverpool with the sole purpose of throwing rotten tomatoes at me.

Don't worry; if I decide to put any romance into Role Reversals, it will be GSR.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Notes**

Sorry for the month-long wait between updates; I had a little bit of writer's block, and got back in the mood by writing a couple of other CSI stories. I've been very amused reading the different reactions to my A/N at the end of the last chapter… Ecklie seems to be one of those characters that people either hate, or love-to-hate.

Thank you to my dad for providing me with a bit of inspiration for the events of this chapter.

----------------

Having no new evidence in the double they had been working on, both Sara and Sofia had moved onto new cases. Graveyard was swamped once again, and any further cases that came in would probably have to be given to somebody on-call from dayshift.

Brass came over to where Sara was loading evidence into her car, waiting until she straightened up before speaking.

"How's it going?"

She shook her head. "I found plenty of fingerprints, and a few hairs that look like they must have come from the killer… just need to get them back to the lab and hope the databases bring up a suspect."

He lifted his eyebrows. "I wasn't talking about the case."

"Oh." She paused. "I have to write Nick, Greg and some lab techs up for insubordination."

If possible, the eyebrows seemed to go even higher. "I'm not going to ask what for." He looked at her with something akin to sympathy in his eyes. "And Grissom?"

"What about him?"

"How are you getting along since his demotion?"

"Okay, mostly." She sighed. "At least I get to give this job back to him at some point."

"Not planning on applying for a permanent supervisory position, then."

"I'm really not. Not in this lab."

----------------

"Working overtime?"

Sara looked up as Ecklie entered the layout room. "Not for that much longer. Just going over some of this evidence."

He nodded, and picked up one of the crime scene photographs lying spread out on the large table. At first he was merely being curious, but as he looked at the young face on the picture, the colour seemed to drain from his face. Sara tried to get his attention but he was frozen in place.

"Ecklie?" No response. She reached out her hand, touching him on the arm. "Ecklie. Do you know him?"

At last he turned to her, and managed to say in a weak voice, "He's my nephew."

She drew in a quick breath, then sighed. "I'm sorry." She touched him again in a gesture of comfort. She had seen the expression on other people's faces many times, the shock of realising a relative had been murdered, but it seemed completely alien on his. "Can you… can you give me his name please? We don't have an ID."

"Robert Hickson. He's my sister's son. I - I don't even know him that well, but…"

"Can you give me his address?" she asked compassionately. "And your sister's, so I can contact her?"

"I think… I'll contact her. I have his address somewhere at home." He reached out, lifting the other pictures, desperately trying to find answers from the evidence laid out in front of him.

"Ecklie." She grabbed his arm, pulling it away from the desk. "You can't touch these. You're emotionally involved. Any evidence you touched would be compromised."

"I have to… I have to find who killed him."

"That's my job, Ecklie. Yours is to be there for your sister." He ignored her, reaching again for the evidence on the table, and she decided she'd need more than sympathy to get through to him. "Ecklie!"

He stopped, stared at her. "Sara -"

"Ecklie, this is graveyard's case. Either you let me handle it or you reinstate Grissom and let him do it." Her voice softened. "Please, Ecklie. Go to your sister. Tell her, help her through it. She'll need to identify the body. Let me do this."

At last he nodded, gazing sadly one last time at the photograph in front of him before leaving the room.

----------------

With the body having been identified, and the personal relationship of the victim to the lab's assistant director, Sara ended up doing far more overtime than she had planned. She finally managed to go home for around three hours of sleep and a meal before having to come back to the lab for her next shift.

She sighed as she saw the figure standing just inside her office. "What are you doing here, Ecklie?"

"I was hoping…"

She closed her eyes for a second. "The DNA results haven't even come back yet, Ecklie. And even if they had, I couldn't tell you the result. I'm sorry, but you really should go home. Take a few days off. You shouldn't be in the lab for the moment."

"I know, I just…" He looked so utterly helpless – so unlike the normal Conrad Ecklie – that she felt compelled to put her hand on his arm, offering tactile comfort for the second time.

----------------

Outside in the corridor, Grissom watched as Sara reached out to Ecklie, unable to hear what was being said. The sight stirred up feelings inside him; an uncontrollable jealousy, combined with disbelief. This was Ecklie for Pete's sake, Sara couldn't possibly have feelings for him. Could she?

As Ecklie turned to leave the office, Grissom exited the hall quickly, joining Greg and Sofia in the break room. Sara came in a couple of minutes later to hand out the assignments. Grissom said nothing to her as he passed her a cup of coffee - too preoccupied with his uncertainty over her earlier action, and far too upset at the possibility that his fears were based in reality.

His silence was broken however when he was told that he was being pulled off the homicide that he had been working the previous night with Sofia, and joining Sara on hers. He protested loudly, his hurt and anger at her from earlier influencing his words to the extent that he forgot about the other two occupants of the room.

Sara stared at him in disbelief. Was this really Grissom acting this way? She interrupted him by speaking his name, the deadly tone of her voice stopping him mid-sentence.

Having been quickly brought back to his senses, he obeyed instantly when she ordered him to her office. He waited for her in there, closing his eyes as he remembered his uncharacteristic display of temper.

She entered a couple of minutes later, having sent the other two members of the team off to work on their respective assignments. She had given them strict instructions to not tell anyone of what had happened, but doubted that it had really been necessary – neither Greg nor Sofia would willingly spread any information that would make Grissom look bad.

"You want to tell me what that was about?"

To his credit, he looked shamefaced. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said any of that. I undercut your authority."

"Want to tell me why?"

Looking at her, he understood that this wasn't really a question so much as an order, and was ironically reminded of when the circumstances had been reversed, with him asking why she had blown up at Ecklie. He thought she had probably had more justification at the time than he did now.

"I'm sorry, I… I've just been stressed the last few days…"

"Oh, come on." Sara shook her head. "Gil Grissom doesn't lose his temper in front of other people just because he's _stressed_."

Realising that she wasn't going to accept a rationalisation any more than he had, he lowered his head. "I suppose I was… jealous."

"Jealous." Her tone was incredulous.

"Yes, I…" From somewhere, he managed to find the courage to spit it out. "I saw you in here with Ecklie, a few minutes ago, and I…"

She stared at him. "You're jealous of me and _Ecklie_?"

His silence was confirmation enough.

"His nephew's been murdered, Grissom. I was trying to comfort him. That's why I pulled you off your case; so you could help me find his nephew's killer."

The feelings that ran through him were mixed, and powerful. Relief, mostly, along with pain, a lot of happiness, and some self-hatred at the realisation that he had been stupid and condemned her for something she hadn't done (and would have been perfectly allowed to do if she had). He managed a weak "Oh," and lifted his eyes to hers, unable to contain his joy.

She stared at him for a moment longer, then shook her head. "I don't know _what_ to make of that, Grissom. I'm not even sure you have the right to feel jealousy, it's not like you've ever laid a claim to me. And you've done plenty of flirting with Sofia."

His eyes widened. "Sofia…"

Her head shook again. "I think we need to continue this conversation later, Grissom. But right now, we have work to do."


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note**

I'm so so sorry for once more making you wait so long between updates, and then for giving you this tiny little snippet; I just wanted to reassure you that I haven't completely abandoned this story. I had a string of essays and things to write (and still have one more assignment I need to do over this weekend) and then I got really into reading Stargate SG-1 fanfic and found it hard to make the mental adjustment back to CSI, lol. So here's a little bit to keep you going till I get around to writing more.

----------------

"I just don't get it, Grissom."

The shift was over - an unfortunate lack of progress having been made so far in the investigation into Robert Hickson's death - and Sara had dragged Grissom to a café, intent on resuming their earlier conversation. He had been reluctant, but she felt that there were things that needed to be said, things she really needed the answers to, and if they didn't do it straight away, they most likely never would.

"How could you… I mean, Ecklie. _Ecklie_. Okay, I admit I don't hate him as much as I used to, but do you really think I could ever date him? Or have any kind of romantic feelings for him? Come on, Griss… and I just don't… this isn't like you, Grissom. You don't usually jump to conclusions like that based on almost no evidence."

"I know. I don't understand it either."

"You're the perfect CSI, Griss. You don't pay attention to any theories until you have the evidence to support them. Why would you decide I was romantically interested in Ecklie, just because I was talking to him? I touched him on the arm; that's hardly up there with having wild sex in the office."

"I really don't know, Sara. I'm sorry."

She sighed, shook her head at him. "What right do you have to be jealous anyway? You made it quite clear that you didn't want to go out with me. Oh, I know you have feelings for me even if you've never actually told me that, but it's perfectly obvious that you care about your job far too much to ever actually go on a date."

"Again, I'm really sorry. I… what do you mean, you know I have feelings for you?"

"Kind of became clear after I saw your little speech to Dr Lurie."

His throat suddenly felt very, very dry. "You were there?"

"In the observation room. Nice going by the way Grissom, I'm so happy that you could tell Brass and a murder suspect what you couldn't tell me face-to-face. Though at least Lurie wouldn't know who you were talking about."

"I'm sorry."

"You seem to be saying that a lot today. It's okay, I suppose. I've had over a year to take it all in. When I heard it, I wasn't sure whether to burst into tears, or be ecstatically happy that at least you did care about me. Guess I've settled for somewhere in the middle. It's just you, who you are; I understand that."

Grissom just sat there looking at her, wondering what on earth he was meant to say next.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Notes**

Sorry for the huge time gap between updates. I've had a variety of different reasons for this, ranging from exams and assignments, to starting a Harry Potter slave fic (see my profile if you're interested), to lack of inspiration (mainly caused by lack of new CSI on UK TV, a problem now solved by the start of season 6) to the not-so-great excuse of 'I wasn't in the mood'.

This is actually the final chapter. I hope you've enjoyed the story and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write! I don't at present have any ideas for further CSI fics, but you never know I might have some in the future…

----------------

He sighed, and then said quietly, "These last few days have been a real role reversal for us haven't they?"

Her eyebrows rose. "My being supervisor?"

"You being the rational one. Calm and controlled, dealing with everything, while I lose my temper and jump to conclusions with no evidence to base them on."

A quiet snort of laughter came from her. "Calm? I'd hardly describe how I've felt this week as _calm_. But I understand what you mean. Grissom, everyone's allowed to lose it occasionally. Even you."

He sighed again, looked down for a moment, and then back up, gazing into her eyes. "I've been unfair to you, Sara. I don't just mean with Ecklie, I mean… the last few years. I've known what you wanted, you made it perfectly clear, but I never gave it to you… and I didn't give you the chance to move on, either. I didn't have any right to be jealous, because if you did find someone else… you'd deserve it. Someone better."

"Grissom, have you ever stopped to think maybe I wouldn't _want_ anyone better? That there is noone I'd consider to _be_ better?" She looked at him searchingly and then asked quietly, "And now that you've decided you were unfair, what do you intend to do Griss? Be with me? Or let me go?"

It was a long time before he answered, the two of them just looking at each other, neither really sure what he would say. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want what I've always wanted, Grissom."

He nodded, and thought back to a conversation the two of them had had months ago in his office. "You really moved to Vegas for me?"

"I didn't do it for the gambling."

----------------

"DNA results are back, Ecklie."

The man looked back at her hopefully. Surely if she was telling him something about the case, it meant that there was good news. As family of the victim, even working at CSI, she couldn't tell him details of the case unless…

"There was a match. And with some evidence that Grissom gathered… the police arrested somebody two hours ago. Your nephew's next-door neighbour."

He breathed in, then out slowly, trying to take this in. He had expected that the news of finding his nephew's murderer would make him feel better, but instead he just felt numb.

"Ecklie," she said quietly. "I'm sure the police will be going round to your sister's soon to inform her. Why don't you go be there for her? I'll take your shift."

He held her eyes for a moment, and then nodded. "Thank you, Sara. Really… thank you. For everything."

"You're welcome. But I was just doing my job."

"You did more than that. Um… if there's ever anything I can do for you…"

"Actually, there is now." She gave him a pleading look. "Give Grissom his job back, _please?_"

A slight smile emerged through the numbness. "You hate it that much?"

"You have no idea."

----------------

Grissom glanced up from where he was bent over the table looking through a microscope. "You should be going home."

"I was just about to say the same thing to you. I'm covering Ecklie's shift."

He sat back. "How did he take the news?"

She sighed. "I don't know. I don't think it made much difference. His nephew is still dead."

He nodded, and regarded her as she slipped onto the stool next to him. "How are you doing?"

She smiled, genuinely. "Tired. And happy. I just got you your job back."

"Really?"

"Uh-huh. I have to do one more night of supervision apparently, and then it's all yours."

"Thank you." He shook his head as he realised something. "I think I took this demotion the wrong way. I think if I'd let it, it could have been nice. Giving up some responsibilities for a while."

She just smiled at him, remaining quiet for a while before saying, "I think having this job for a while has taught me some things. Made me appreciate even more everything you and Catherine do – and even Ecklie."

"Would you want to do it again? Permanently, in better circumstances?"

She paused while she thought about it. "I don't think so. Not now, definitely. In the future maybe. There were things about it I could like. Getting to decide priorities and how to do things. And I've always liked training Greg; I could do more of that as a supervisor. But I hated having to write up Nick and the others for insubordination, disciplining my friends. I don't want to have to do that again."

"It's always hard." Looking at her, he wanted desperately to touch her… and for the first time, he could permit himself to do so. He stretched out, and gently stroked the side of her face with the back of his hand. She leaned into the caress.

"Are you really going to do this, Grissom?" she asked, almost whispering her desperate plea. "You're not going to back out? Because if you are, then end it now because I don't think I could cope with it if you did."

"I'm not going to, Sara. I know I've done nothing to earn your trust, but please, believe me when I say that I am going to try. I'm going to try to be all that you want me to be, give you everything that you deserve. Everything you should have had years ago."

She reached out and touched his face, the mirroring gestures comforting them both. "Just start small, Grissom. You don't need to give me the world just yet. I simply want a chance to get to know you, and as more than just a friend or a supervisor. I want to sit in a restaurant, eat food, drink wine, and talk to each other. And then I just want to see where it goes from there."

He turned his head slightly, and very gently kissed the palm of her hand. "I can do that, Sara. Thank you… thank you for giving me a chance. Thank you for waiting for me."

She returned the kiss softly, and then lowered her hand from his face, moving forward to lean over his microscope, and then asking quietly how his case was going.


End file.
